


Reek of glories

by lost_torie_is_me



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ancient Rome, F/F, F/M, M/M, Other, ahahaha sorry guys, slow built gets hardcore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-31 12:14:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3977620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_torie_is_me/pseuds/lost_torie_is_me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary<br/>100-200 AD is around the timeline I am going to attempt to make this story in.</p><p>Clutching his grip tighter at his sword, taking deep long breath, Jason gazed at the end of the tunnel; even through the barrack he could see the light shining out from it he wondered what Octavian set out there today.<br/>Hundred thousand of Romans were taking their places in the seats, which rose in levels of fifty around the stadium. At either end of the stadium there were two gates, barracked with an iron wall to prevent anyone from escaping. As Jason stepped out of the gate, the city of Rome was shouting cheers for the valiant gladiator. With every step Jason took the crowd grew louder and more exited; the sound was muffled though. Jason knew it was a matter of time before he would grow tired and slip up: but that day was not today.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Damned heroes

Cheers, and screams filled the streets of Rome. Romans peered above the heads of other Romans, through windows, all to see the heroes returned home.  
Gazing from the terrace, Reyna watched the Roman soldiers marching back into Rome with Jason in the front being cheered as a hero. Jason was the pride of Rome; he was what every roman strive to be. Even Reyna envied him.  
“Look at them, cheering on that bitch’s son as if he was some sort of hero,” Octavian sneered with disgust as he watches his half-brother Jason enter the city. “It’s almost like they haven’t realized that I was the one who had won this war.”  
Reyna gazed at her husband, the great emperor of Rome. None of the glory given to his older brother appeared to be inherited to him. Truly a shame that destiny had made Octavian emperor when his brother was clearly the better match, Reyna, empress of Rome, found herself thinking. Despite the many wise councils, the many wise oracles, Octavian would listen to none of them, and he proclaimed himself Oracle of Apollo, by sacrificing others to gain the sight of divination. But even this power was a façade to Reyna. She knew more than anyone that Octavian hasn’t inherited anything aside from a title; he was no ruler of Rome, nor did he have any godly gift.

“Your Imperial Majesty,” Piper said, Reyna’s newest lady-in-waiting. Piper was a young beautiful woman with warm chocolate-colour skin and wavy liquid-bronzed-colour hair.“ Percy would like to see you,” she announced while keeping her head down to not meet their eyes.

“Percy? That uxorious fool?”

“Percy is a dear friend of mine, Caesar,” Reyna growled back at him, glaring at him until he lowered his eyes. Returned his attention to the march.

“Tell Percy that I’ll be with him in a minute,” she said to Piper.

“Of course.” With that said, she gave a bow and left the room.

“Caesar, may I take my leave as well?” Reyna asked.

“Yes, you may depart,” Octavian responded, not removing his eyes from the marching army.  
As Reyna left the terrace, passing through the door, she found Piper walking back to her.

“Ah, Your Imperial Majesty, I was just coming back to get you,” said Piper with a slight frown.

“Thank you, which room is Percy in?”

“He is in the East Wing.”  
***  
As Reyna entered the east wing, her eyes fell on Percy. He had tanned a lot from all of the fishing adventures he’d been boasting about. His hair was windblown black, all swept to one side, in a nice, kind of distorted way. He still held a childlike grin that lit up is sea-green eyes. He had never relinquished that childish smile, regardless of the shame he had endure, and the suffering he has undergone.  
“Hey Ra-Ra, took you long enough,” Percy retorted. He was lazily leaning against a marble pillar with a giant smile, but he walked toward Reyna, closing in for a hug.

“Percy, my dear friend, welcome.” Reyna received the hug smiling, Percy being one of the few Romans that she felt at ease with. She welcomed his embrace when he was going for a hug and over his hugs she continued, “How does Annabeth fare?”  
Percy and Reyna had known each other for many years before she became engaged to Octavian, Percy still wore his hair long despite it not being the common coif of a Roman but then again Percy didn’t seemed to understand what being a Roman, meant.  
Once Reyna had been fully embraced in one of his bear hugs, he let her go to answer her question. “Annabeth is doing fine, the physician says that we should have a strong baby arriving at the end of sixth month… still nerve racking though,” Percy confessed.  
Reyna smiled at Percy. She felt bad that someone as nice as he was, was being rejected from the army but given his personality, it could be understood. Twice in a war he hadn’t listened to the commander and acted accordingly to his own judgement; creating chaos while doing so. He was openly proud of his hindered brother, and he listened to his wife and valued her as if all of her opinions were just as right as a man’s opinion; leading too many Romans to find his mere presence a disgrace.  
He and Reyna continued having small talk about the soon-to-be child and Reyna’s son, who was going to be nine this year.

“And then he just ignored me!” Percy complained. “Can you believe that?”

“Easily,” Reyna taunted back teasingly.

“Your Imperial Majesty,” Piper announced as she walked into the room, “the Captain and Senate are all waiting.”

“Yes, thank you,” Reyna sighed “Percy, I have to go now, do you want to join me?”

“To meet all of the snobs that kicked me out of the army? Because I caused chaos?” Percy emphasized the last word by making quotation marks. “Yeah, seems like fun.”

“So, did Jason ever tell you about the time that I saved him?”  
***  
Reyna and Percy walk toward the courtroom. Their footprints that once echoed through the palatine were now being buried by the chatters of diplomats and soldiers the excited babble of the men echoed throughout the courtroom. As Reyna and Percy entered, they all watched them. They were some gossiping about Percy, some with austere expression. Others looked in disgust, causing Reyna to frown, although Percy, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have heard nor care.

“JASON!” Percy shouted suddenly, causing Reyna to flinch, for his shout was unfortunately close to her ears. Percy proceeded to run toward Jason, while Reyna followed behind him.

“Percy, how are you?” Jason replied, while extending his hand.

“Good,” said Percy while going for a hug instead. “Congrats on the war, shame they wouldn’t let me in, this time, maybe next time though.”  
At this statement, Reyna and Jason eyes met, and they both silently agreed to not say anything, knowing that Percy was most likely, probably kidding.

“Reyna, my empress and sister, how are you and how is the little Cesar?” Jason quickly added to bury the conversation with Percy.

“He is fine, he is excelling at his sword practice,” said Reyna with a tint of pride, “while as for myself, there is no need for complaint.” Aside from that bastard Octavian and his arrogant behavior, she thought silently to herself.

“I'm glad to hear that Octavian hasn’t been given you too much trouble, then.”

“Phhh, no way, Octave is still a world-class ass,” Percy announced. “I think he has grown more ass-like since he won the war.” Percy emphasized once again by making a quotation mark gesture at the word ‘he’.

“Well, can’t say I didn’t see that coming,” Jason confessed, “but as long as he isn’t inflicting pain to others, I don’t particularly care.”

“Can’t say the same for me, though.” Percy snarled, looking back at Octavian bragging to the Senate. “I can’t believe you’re married to someone like him.”

“Many say the same for Annabeth,” Reyna sighed, not wanting to have to explain the necessity of her presence in the court.

“Yeah, Annabeth is great, I'm really lucky to have her as a wife,” Percy replied in awe, probably thinking of her again

“Jason!”

Jason turned his attention to the Senate and his brother, who didn’t seemed happy in the slightest, and was gesturing for him to follow.

“I’ll try to be back,” he said while taking a deep breath, dreading talking to his brother.  
***  
Chiron grinned at Jason as he approached. “Jason, we wanted to congratulate you on the victory. We heard from many that it was due to your bravery and cleverness.” Chiron praised. Slightly abashed Jason thanked Chiron, who was also the teacher to both Octavian and himself for rhetoric and history.

“Chiron, don’t praise Jason so much, or else his overly large head will only grow larger,” Octavian snarled. “And don’t forget that it was my army that won this war, and my sacrifice to the gods that made the difference between loss and victory.”

“Yes, and we are very grateful for those prayers,” Chiron answered, feeding Octavian’s ego, “but do not forget, a great emperor knows when to give his praises.”

“Of course I know when praises are due, you stupid old man” Octavian barked back at Chiron, who only glared menacing at the young emperor.

“Octavian, stop talking!” Jason barked right back at Octavian,

“Oh, what’s with this tone of superiority I hear?” Octavian teased. “If I were you, I wouldn’t try to stand all high and mighty,” said Octavian, raising his voice, until he realized that many were listening. He turned bright red once he saw the disapproving faces of the soldier and started to walk away, but turn back.

“And remember Jason, some men may prefer you, but I am loved by everyone, even the gods” with that final remark he left the hall.

“I’ll never understand where he went wrong,” Chiron sighed. “He was such a bright child.”

“No, Octavian was always… difficult,” said Jason, with a bit of impatience in his voice.

“Didn’t you ever want the throne, Jason?”

“Not once, it was never my place,” said Jason while shaking his head. “But Reyna’s kid seems decent, more than decent actually. I wouldn’t mind serving him, once he’s older of course.”

“I don’t think that Octavian would relinquish his role even on his dying bed.”

“You're probably right, but knowing that Reyna’s kids is going to be emperor brings me hope.”  
***  
Reyna watched the entire discussion between Jason and Octavian feeling sick to her stomach; she escaped the great hall with Piper.

“Your Imperial Majesty, are you feeling well?” asked Piper, a while after they’d started walking. Her eyes were full of concern and bluish-grey at present. 

Reyna smiled politely at Piper. “I’m fine, do not worry, but I wouldn’t mind some wine,” said Reyna, while massaging her temple in remembrance of her husband immature action earlier on.

“Yes, of course.” And then Reyna was left by herself with her guards.  
***  
Piper led the way to Reyna’s room with the little Cesar following a few feet behind him. Once at Reyna’s room, Piper returned from the kitchen with some fruit, a flagon of wine and Reyna’s son, and as Reyna raised her eyebrow.

“I found him wandering, looking for you,” Piper said with a shrug. “Unless you rather if I left him to wander.”  
Reyna looked at Piper for a few second, until she let out a sigh and turned her attention to her son, and finally back to Piper

“No, I'm glad that you brought him. Luke, why are you here?”  
 


	2. Protocols

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay dear readers, so this is very very IMPORTANT to read before the story.  
> Ancient Rome 101  
> So in ancient Rome, girls would get engage right after puberty, so between the ages of 10-14. But they wouldn’t get married until they reached a suitable age to have children, so between 15-20 (but they could still could legally marry by 12, but it would not be officially until she turned 13). And richer family would engage their daughter at a younger age. The reason for the engagement right after puberty was according to Roman, once a girl hits puberty she is erotically charges and cannot control herself. The parents do not want their daughter, who already does not have any strong values, and to also lose her most important factors: her purity/virginity. While men, got married after doing some service for the military, so in their early twenties, or late teens. Also keep in mind, there is many couples who has an even bigger age gap. And are still perfect, like Daenerys and Drogo (games of throne) and Rumpelstiltskin and Belle (Once Upon A Time) and any others ship you like. So please don't think I'm writing this large age gap coz I have questionable interest. 
> 
> Thanks you for reading ^^

Piper walked towards the kitchen through the servants’ passageway. She followed the light, and used her hands to trace the wall so she didn’t trip upon the many cracks and dents the servants’ passage had. Piper had always found this place creepy, the cobwebs certainly didn’t help, nor the absence of any windows. Piper found herself missing her old life incredibly, but knew fully that she could not go back to that life. Going back to Egypt was no longer an option, but she still found herself mildly sad thinking of the Nile and gardens that she’ll never see again. Shaking her head, she entered the kitchen and collected some of the fruits and a flagon of wine, before heading back.

On her way back, through the creepy servants’ passage, and out, she was relieved to see the sun, which even though it was radiating through the orange-pink sky. It reminded her of the same sunset that she used to see in Egypt. Hearing a sob, Piper stopped mid-track, moving slowly to steal a peek at the child, who was crying. To her surprise it was the little prince: Reyna’s son. Piper first reaction was to walk away as fast and quietly as possible, but decided against it once she saw him falling down to his knees, praying to a statue of a giant that was holding a thunder bolt in his right hand. 

The room was large and empty; it had very little decoration, or anything in fact. The wall had holes that held statue of deities within them all throughout the hallway. At the end of it, standing in front of the little prince was the largest statue. Piper was only allowed in these sacred rooms with Reyna. Still feeling foreign to these temples, seeing how spacious and simple the design puzzled her. A dozen pillars supported the tall ceiling, creating illusion that the temples were larger, leaving more room for wind. Rome’s temples greatly reminded Piper of the Greece’s temples, and she admired the statue, taking note on how realistic they were. 

She walked slowly towards Prince Luke to not scare him. She made her footsteps more obvious and loud to make sure that he knew someone was behind him. He showed no such realization. Deciding that the child was too self-absorbed to notice her; she decided to adopt a new strategy.

“My prince?” she called in her sweetest, softest voice. 

His shoulder stiffened at her voiced, and he quickly wiped his eyes with his hands.

“Slave, I would prefer if you didn’t feel so comfortable as to give me a nickname,” he said with his best air of superiority, even though his voices was rigid as was his breathing, and tears were in the corners of his blue eyes. Piper could see that he was trying his best to hide that he was crying, so that he didn’t look weak. 

Piper felt bad for him. While he did inherited most of his father appearance such as his blond hair and blue eyes, Piper found that he had a more angular face like his mother’s as well as her temperament which she hoped that he would not lose. 

Piper would normally annoyed if she were referred to a slave rather than lady-in-waiting, which was actually her job, and to be put down by a child was infuriating to most. Considering having the Emperor Octavian as a father, Piper pitied him more than most would. Piper instead just smiled to him.

“I would prefer if you didn’t called me a slave.” As she said this, Luke looked down to his feet, most likely to hide his face, and Piper notice a tint of red on his cheeks.

“But aside from that, I am very busy,” said Piper while pointing one of her fingers to the plate she was holding. “If you’re not too occupy with praying to…the gods...” she said, almost making it sound like a question, for at this point she didn’t care enough to know all of the different deity of this land. 

“…you could assist me with these,” she replied, looking at her fruits then the young prince, while smiling brightly, hoping to distract him, while also hoping that he wouldn’t think that she was patronizing him. 

“You’re seeing mother, right?” he said while keeping his eyes to her feet, the same way she kept her eyes away from Caesar.

“Yes, do you wish to come?” she encouraged softly,

“I would like that.”

Luke grabbed the single tray and took the lead, while Piper, astounded, just followed a few steps behind him, having nothing left to hold. 

***  
The empress’ room was wide; a circular room clear and open, with the evening breeze dancing though the room. Graceful arched window punctuated the wall, on which hung white drapes that were used as a wall separating the room from her garden. There was only a single bed that was situated in the center of the room. The room was beautifully decorated with white peonies, which were also the flower that grew in the garden just on the left of her room. Piper stared in awe, gazing at this beautiful room. Regardless of how many times she has entered this room, she was always baffled by how beautiful it was. It wasn’t until Reyna cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow that Piper snapped back to reality and remembered whom she found in the hallway.

“I found him wandering, looking for you.” Piper shrugged weakly, averting her eyes from Reyna’s piecing gaze. “Unless you rather if I left him to wander” wondering secretly if she should have done that instead. Considering the look that Reyna was giving her maybe not the best idea she had. But prince Luke looked so lost and pitiful that Piper knew she had to help him out. After what felt like a century of silence Reyna finally open her mouth. 

“No, I'm glad that you brought him. Luke why are you here?”

Luke looked to the side appearing sheepish and scared. Piper could tell that he had done something wrong. She also wondered if she should leave this obvious mother-son conversation.

“I saw the widow women….” said Luke quietly, while looking at his feet. “I know you told me not to, and that she’s crazy….” He was now in verge of tears. “She told me I was going to die, but I am going to make you proud because I’ll die a hero.” he barely finished before tears started to drip from his eyes. 

Piper clearly saw that he was trying his best to not admit that the old widow women was scaring him, and wanted nothing more than company at the moment. The widow women had that effect on most of the Romans, they would often find her wandering around town, whispering prophesy to herself. Many mothers tried to lure their kids away from the widow. Although being children they tend to seek her. She looked back at Reyna whose face was stern but behind it was fear. Reyna reached out to her son to hug him, and lifted him up to hug tighter, whispering soft words. 

“Piper, you may retreat for the night,” said Reyna as she turned her head slightly to look at her lady-in-waiting, and tightened her arms protectively around Luke. “And could you not mention this to anyone?” 

Piper nodded before leaving the chamber.

***  
Reyna waited until she couldn’t hear Piper’s footsteps before turning her attention back to her son. She put him on her bed, and kneeled in front of him.

“Luke, could you tell me what the widow said to you?” whispered Reyna.

“I don’t know,” he said, while holding back his tears, “I was playing near the temples when she came out of the creek and grabbed onto my arm. I tried to shake her off but she wouldn’t let go! Then she grabbed my other arm and screamed, she kept crying something about hero’s soul, cursed blade and reap.” Barely finished before sobbing again “I can’t get her face out of my mind, her eyes scare me, mother.” 

“Shhhhhh, it’s okay, she can’t hurt you, and you aren’t going to get hurt, not on my watch,” she promised, then gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead.

She then rocked him until he fell asleep, wondering if this prophecy was true or not, and hoping that Octavian would never hear of this. 

***

Piper didn’t really know where she was going. She knew that Reyna wanted privacy, and more often than not she would dismiss her; even though Piper was suppose to be with her 24/7. Piper assumed it was because Reyna didn’t trust her yet, which wasn’t a unreasonable statement, considering that Piper was a gift from her homeland to emperor Octavian, who, having no personal need for her, handed Piper to Reyna. It was clear that he hoped that Piper would be an assassin or something of the sort, but she really wasn’t, to his frustration. Now a year later, Reyna was still alive and thriving, but she didn’t completely trust Piper. 

Piper looked up and saw the forge where she had made a friend with another foreigner: a Latino blacksmith and her best friend in this city.

The forge was at the foot of the palace, surrounded by sand and scraps of deformed metal, which made Piper laugh. Hephaestus still hadn’t cleaned despite the many visits from the inspector that Emperor Octavian had sent. Piper could still remember how Hephaestus rolled his eyes while the inspector pointed dramatically at all of the “rubbish” that he had to throw away, and that if he wished to remain in such close proximity of the palace he would have to have this place cleaned and free of trash. Hephaestus just sarcastically nodded along during the whole “discussion” whenever the inspector looked at him for a response. Piper remembered hearing Hephaestus telling him whatever he wanted to hear so that the inspector would leave his land as soon as possible. 

Once closer, Piper could feel the heat radiating from the forge. Sweat was already forming on her skin. As she approached the forge, she notice black smoke constantly escaping from the building and she could hear the noise of banging on metal. She opened the large heavy door, which had layers of iron to protect the wood from the flames. Once the door was fully open she found Leo and Beckendorf working on a shield. They seemed to be concentrating, and then Beckendorf look up and his eyes caught Piper’s. 

“HEY LEO, WANNA TAKE A BREAK?” Beckendorf yelled and stopped from banging on the shield so that Leo could hear him.

“WHAT? WHY? WE’RE ALMOST DONE!” Leo complained

“PIPER!” Beckendorf yelled back while pointing at Piper, who was waving enthusiastically toward the pair.

“PIPER!” Leo said while putting the shield into the water. “What are you doing here?”

“I have the night off,” said Piper nonchalantly. 

“And now so do we, wanna go somewhere, Piper? And Beckendorf, you’re free too, right?” Leo said to Beckendorf who was still working.

“Nah, Silena is waiting for me,” he said with a wink while smiling like an idiot.

“So just the two of us, then,” Leo said with a smirk.

“Not so fast, where do you think you’re going?” a small girl said in an annoyed tone, standing proudly behind one of the table, which was most likely the reason why Piper hadn’t seen her. 

“Why! If it wasn’t the lovely perfect princess Calypso, how do you do, my grace?” Leo teased playfully while bowing and reaching out for her hand to most likely kiss it, if she hadn’t moved her hand to smack his head instead. 

This little girl was really beautiful, with dark almond-shaped eyes and cinnamon-brown hair that was tied in looses braids decorated with a bronze tiara. Piper guessed that she was thirteen, maybe fourteen. She was wearing a creamed-coloured tunic with a belt that appeared to be made of some type of metal that hung around her waist. The dress had a few grease stains, but it still looked very elegant on the girl’s figure. 

“Do you actually believe that you can do whatever the hell you want just because my father isn’t here?” she said with force as she frowned. 

“Don’t worry, I promise that I’ll take full responsibility if he does get angry.” Leo cracked a smile. “But hey, he loves us like we’re his own sons. He wouldn’t send us to the street just because we didn’t stay the whole night here.”

“Don’t worry Caly, we were done with our shift, and everything is on schedule, and we’ll report back to work tomorrow at the crack of dawn,” said Beckendorf as he lightly patted the head of Calypso. 

She nodded, but didn’t seem to agree fully, “I’ll let you hooligans off for the night,” she finally said. “In exchange for some soil, from Persephone, not the crap you got me last time, Leo.” 

“Deal, bye-bye princess!” Leo said as he grabbed Piper’s hand and led them out of the forge. 

“I AM NOT YOUR PRINCESS!” she yelled, as Leo and Piper exited. Piper look back worried that she might have caused Leo to be in trouble, but from the slight smile on Calypso face, she knew that he was going to be okay. 

***

“So how’s slaving for the empress working out for yah?” questioned Leo as he threw rocks into the river of the port an attempt to make them skip as Piper did a few seconds before him. 

Piper gazed at the moonlight and the ripples the rocks made. She honestly didn’t know how to answer this question. It wasn’t that Reyna was mean or anything, she was actually quite kind, especially considering that she knew that many thought of her as an assassin at the beginning of her stay including Reyna. And Reyna was probably still suspicious of her. The thought bothered her a lot more than she cared to admit. Not that she was hoping to be the best dog of the royalty, but she wanted to be trusted.

“I honestly don’t know,” Piper finally mumbled, while pulling her knees closer to her chest. “And it’s sort of lonely there…” 

Leo stopped throwing rocks and turned toward the lady-in-waiting. He didn’t say anything, not that it surprised her. Leo wasn’t the best at sharing. She continued

“it’s not like I expected her to welcome me with open arms, but I do sort of… in a way do…” Piper blushed at how hard it was to explain it out loud.

“Pipes, um, you know, if you want, I know this really old lady that has a flower shop. If you wanna, you could probably get a job there, and you’ll most likely inherited it once she bites the dust. I mean, she’d love you.”

Piper laughed hollowly. She guessed that Leo didn’t understand what she just said, but then again, he was quite dense sometimes. 

“No, it’s fine.” Piper smiled, wondering how it was possible that Leo could always cheer her up even if he didn’t always say what she wanted or expected to hear. “And you're not doing it right,” she said as she grabbed the rock from Leo’s hand. “If you want to skip rocks you must know the secret: it’s all about the wrist.” As she explained she made the rock skip four times.

***

Jason reluctantly followed Frank and the rest to a celebration for “Octavian’s victory”. The area was crowded, noisy, and really Jason wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. Especially when he saw his younger brother bragging to the diplomats. This entire ordeal was ridiculous. He saw millions beyond the gate starved and dehydrated, while the rich; the palace was living in luxury. He gripped his goblet tighter until he could feel the metal bending. 

“Commander Jason,” said Frank, looking mildly worried. “You seem distracted, do you want to head back to your chambers?”

“Huh? No, it’s fine Frank,” said Jason as he was released his grip on the goblet. “Plus, I do not need my brother to have any more reason to think that I want to overthrow him.” He remembered the many others times that Octavian accused him of attempting to overthrow him. Jason even doubted that Octavian sincerely believed that Jason wanted to overthrow him. More of mistrust, because Chiron and his mother preferred him, “It would be very likely he would take my early absence as going to plan an invasion or something.”

“Yeah, I forgot about that, what was the reason for the latest accusation again?” asked Frank as he tried to remember.

“I told him that attacking Egypt again may not be the best plan. Or maybe because I said that his plan of attack wasn’t the best one…possibly both,” Jason compiled in an exhausted tone. 

“Well, on the bright side we should be out of the capital soon; I mean, we should be going on another campaign or something, right, commander?” asked Frank. He like Jason, never felt at ease in social gatherings. One reason was that he was not truly Roman, since he had some distant Huns parentage in his blood. Which used that as an explanation for his height and built: he was much larger than most of the men in the army. His skin rather golden beige, than the usual tan the other Romans had and eyes cringed with the colour of ink. At first Frank’s fellow soldiers had found him suspicious but working in the army for over five years had built trust in their unit, and now everyone would defend each other without a moment of hesitation. Unfortunately that wasn’t the same for the rest of Rome, leaving Frank feeling awkward when it came to social gatherings and whatnot.

“I figured that you would wish to stay in Rome longer considering that you are to be engaged,” Jason said.

Frank just cringed. “Yeah, but it’s with a kid I’ve never met before… it’s just something that my grandmother set up…” said Frank while letting out a huge sigh. “I heard that she was barely sixteen… and being twenty-two… I can’t…I can’t help but feel like I would be taking advantage of someone so young…” 

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” Jason agreed, grateful that he didn’t have to worry about marriage but fully knowing that one day he could no longer escape, if Octavian didn’t kill him of first. “When are you going to officially meet her?” 

“In two days,” Frank groaned into his palm.

***

“Nico, I can’t do it, I just can’t!” yelled a petite girl, with insanely curly copper and golden-brown colour hair. 

“You can always voice this to father” Nico scolded, while he was wrapping a pile of bandages. “And how did you get here anyways?” He question raising an eyebrow at his younger sister.

“I'm about to be married to a military dog, and all you question is how did I get here?” Hazel’s voice got higher, closer to a shriek.

“Hazel, this isn’t a safe neighbourhood, you could have gotten attacked in these areas. I doubt that father would approve of you being here.”

“I don’t give a damn of what he approves of or not!” she snapped back. “And he’ll like it just as much as you working here.” 

“Hazel, listen,” he said as he put down the bandages and walked closer to Hazel until they were face to face. “To obtain such a good marriage proposal for people like us, it isn’t easy, we’re lucky that you were able to find something like that.” Nico looked at her, trying to convey his seriousness. “And anyways, if he displeases you, father or I could kill him with ease,” Nico teased, backing up to grab a sword that was resting on the table, and swung it easily with one hand while Hazel laughed. 

“I’ll walk you back home.” said Nico placing the swords in it belt and lead Hazel out of the doors. 

“What about you, Nico. How is your love life?”

He made a face “well considering that I worked all day and look like a corpse, I must say I'm pretty safe from the whole marriage thing.” he confessed. 

“That’s not what I meant,” said Hazel seriously.

“Yeah I know what you mean, but I would rather not go there.” Nico frowned. “Why don’t we talk about you? When are you supposed to meet this guy?”

“I would rather not go there,” Hazel repeated in the same tone as Nico’s did a few second priors

“Fair enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long gap for the update, and once again this wouldn’t be possible without my beta Mossy_bench, because without her this story would probably seen as sick, and wrong with a lot of mistake, so give her a lot of thanks…. And thanks you readers for sticking with my story, I love you guys!


	3. engagement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OMG!!! I'm so happy with the positive comments and hits/kudos you guys have been giving me, I cannot thank you enough for your support and encouragement! Seriously you guys I love you, thank you so much! 
> 
> I'm so sorry it's taken so long to update every times, but i have good and bad news!!! the good news is that i'll most likely be able to update the 4th chapter in less than two weeks, the bad new is that my beta cant work with me anymore, (for school and whatnot reason) so you'll have to deal with my not so great english. 
> 
> PS, if anyone want to beta for me they are more than welcome!!!!

Frank could feel his nerves about to explode as the sedan chair came to a stop in front of the Hadrianus villa. Frank kept on running his hand through his once-perfectly-groomed hair. 

The villa was surrounded with flowers from all the corners of Rome; the villa itself was nicely situated at the edges of a cliff facing the sea. Perfect to plummet myself in, he thought cynically. 

“Frank. Remembers that this is a very wealthy, and they have a lot of honours, both in name and heritage. It is imperative that you obtain a great first impression,” the elderly women said, yet again, with a scowl, “and try not to embarrass us.” 

Frank tried to calm himself, he knew that this meeting had to go perfectly, everything his grandmother said was true. The Hadrianus was a wealthy powerful family; no one dared to offend or angered them. It was rumoured that their family were direct descended from Pluto, the god of the underworld and wealth. Which didn’t help Frank’s nervousness, he had heard many rumours that made him feel scared and worried. 

His grandmother was wearing the finest stolae she owned with green trimming, of course, and, being the colour of wealth none other would have been adequate. She even went as far as having a wig especially made for the occasion. Her long polish fingernails were scratching her knuckles lightly back and forth, as she anxiously glared at Frank, waiting for him to answer her. 

“I won’t Grandmother,” Frank said with his chin up, attempting to appear much more confident than he actually was. Frank was wearing his finest toga as well, one that he only worn twice, but his grandmother still found the need to have it whitened for the past three days. His grandmother had it send to have his toga in the process of making it as conceivably white as possible. And his arm hair, he believed was going to fall off after all of the scrubbing that the ancilla had done to remove any speck of dirt and erasing any sign that he had spent a minute outside before today. 

“sure,” she replied sceptically, proceeded to knock on the inside of the sedan chair, to let the Plebeian know she was done with the pep talk and could actually get out to see the Hadrianus’.

Stepping out of the sedan chair, Frank felt more scared, the Hadrianus’ residence was even more imposing than Frank first perceive. Frank started to forget all of his grandmother’s condition and counsel. All of the council started to fade away, being replaced by the sound of his heartbeat; all Frank could now see is his own failure. 

The villa was beautifully embellished with flowers that Franks have seen in all of the lands. He was amazed with the abundance of diversity in which the Hadrianus seemed to have. The actual house, on the other hand, seemed gloomy and terrifying. Frank could feel a cold sweat forming on his back. Frank tried to remind himself that being in a war was more terrifying than visiting a possible suitor, that fighting a war was one hundred times more frightening. When they had reached the doorstep of the villa, the Plebeian knocked on the doors of the villa. A few seconds later, a young dark-skin man answered the door. The man was very large, the first man that was actually taller than Frank, to his utmost surprise, and he had tattoos of what seemed to be random lines. Frank, he brought his eyes to meet the man who was standing in between them and the door. He did not look pleased in the slightest, even a little fustrated. 

“I supposed you are the Zhangs?” he asked calmly, despite his outwardly butch appearance he seemed pretty nice and serene.

“Yes, we are, where’s lord Hadrianus?” Frank’s grandmother responded rudely, before Frank could say anything. Frank’s grandmother wasn’t hiding her irritation that the slave was addressing her informally, although Frank found it refreshing.

“My lord is at the terrace, and if you wait here I’ll fetch him.” He closed the door onto their face, only to have it reopened by a beautiful lady. Her hair was decorated with the some of the same flowers that decorated their yard. Her hair was golden with a few streaks of white showed her ages, and her skin was very darks, making her hair stand out much more. 

“I am sorry about Thanatos’ behaviour, and my husband and daughter are in the garden if you would follow me,” she said while smiling sweetly “I am Persephone,” she said while gesturing for them to follow her. 

She led them throughout the villa, to the terrace; there a tern looking man, with an intimating air and tall stature to match, turned his attention from his daughter to gaze at the newcomers.

“Your slave, almost chased our guests away,” hissed Persephone once her eyes met Hayden. 

“Did he?” said Hayden, eyes cold, Frank tried to guess what he was thinking but found it impossible “they still found their way here nevertheless” 

“This is my daughter Hazel” Hayden presented; Frank turned and looked down to his fiancé, and was surprised at what he saw. While she was small, and looked very young, she was extremely cute, with her uncontrolled frizzy light copper coloured hair, tanned skin, lighter than her mother but much darker than her father’s ghostly complexion. She had the most amazing beautiful gold eyes that Frank had ever seen. Frank instantly wanted nothing more than to protect her or to give her a bear hug. 

Frank stood there in a daze for a few second before his grandmother nudge him violently to bring him back to his senses. 

“hello, my lady I am Frank… well I guessed you would know that wouldn’t you?—”

Hazel stared at him, looking puzzle with her beautiful golden eyes, which would bring mineral to shame. After looking at lord Hayden for approval whom seemed to reluctantly nod, but didn’t seem too impressed either. 

“Lord Frank I am honoured that you came to meet my family, while I do know you by name, I wouldn’t mind to know you in a more familiar sense.” She said while smiling sweetly that made Frank’s face heat up. 

Hayden and the others left them to talk in private after many persuasions from Persephone to discuss about their future. Frank’s grandmother turned back looking worriedly back at the pair, Frank however gave her an encouraging nod. 

A couple hours ago, the mere thought of being alone with his future fiancé on such short notice would have left him fearing of the awkward conversation, but now that he meet her, he didn’t mind it at all. Once they had all finally left him alone with Hazel, he realized that he actually didn’t know what to say. 

“Um… As I was entering into your grounds, I saw your gardens, they look beautiful…” said Frank etching his way closer to Hazel, where apparently Thanatos was standing behind her. Which surprised Frank considering that he didn’t see him, Frank gave a shy nod, before taking a few steps back.

“Yes my mother takes great pride in her gardens” she replied with a soft smile, the silence then refilled the room.

The next few minutes were being spend in horrible silence, Frank would occasionally find his eyes gazing at the door and Hazel. Whenever his eyes would meet her, she would smile in the cutest way. He found himself wanting to talk to her regardless of the conversation, whatever could be discuss would be good enough.

“You’re smaller then I expected you to be” Frank blurted out, believing that any sort of conversation would be better than another minutes of silenced.

He was wrong.

***  
Jason was at the armoury sharpening his gladius, many soldiers considered this sort of labour beneath them, although Jason enjoyed these little chores. Jason had already gotten used to the noises that Frank was making in the corner of the armoury banging his head against the pillar for the past half hour. Jason figured that he would wait a while longer until Frank was ready to talk.

Many soldiers came and passed, asking questions about Frank’s behaviour, Jason just shakes his head and they left confused. Jason heard Frank utter words like “complete idiot” and “why am I such an idiot”, basically things revolving around him being an idiot. Jason had already assumed that the meeting must have been worse than he predicted. 

“Frank don’t you think you have bruised that pillar enough already?” Jason questioned, at this point it was getting repetitive.

“No, not until I forget about this entire day” said Frank while not even resting enough to reply to Jason.

“You can always say no, you do realize that?” said Jason with a scowl “I mean if she’s that young and you’re that uncomfortable.”

“Nooo” Frank responded almost right away hiding his face into his palm “no no no, she wasn’t like that, I mean she is really young, but she’s really, really cute, and she looks smart and sweet, and I completely screwed things over.”

“Wait what?” Jason interrogated stopping sharpening his blade turning to Frank “I thought you said that you weren’t comfortable with someone so young, don’t tell me…” Jason backs away slowly.

“What no!!! You didn’t…I’m not…I swear… I wasn’t thinking of anything perverted,” Frank almost shouted turning bright red. 

Jason gave a sigh of relief, “so what did you do to make things so terrible?”

“I literally called her tiny… to her face” he groaned while covering his head with his hands

“Why? Was she a dwarf?” Jason asked, “and even if she was why did you called her a tiny?”

“No!! And I don’t know why!! She was just… I didn’t know what else to say!!” Frank moaned, “I mean I don’t even know her! What else could I have said?”

“You live in a nice mansion, the decoration is nice? You are beautiful,” Jason listed. Before Frank buried his face deeper in his hands

“I tried, but she just answered in short phrases, did I mention that her voice is like honey?”

“Maybe she found it endearing? This is possibly salvageable, what happened after that?” Jason attempted to reassure his companion. 

“She just stared at me, as if I was a freak….” said Frank “with her big gold eyes, staring right at me, and I just stood there confused”

“That… is probably not really good …” Jason complied, not knowing how to respond with this issue

“Grace, the emperor wants to see you” two guard said, both standing between himself and the pillar. 

Great Jason thought to himself sarcastically, “of course” he responded and followed the summoned.

***  
Octavian was in the throne room, sitting with an air of superiority, looking down on Jason as he walked down the hall to close their gap.

“Jason, brother, how do you like Rome since you last have seen her?”

Jason looked at Octavian in disbelief, was this seriously the reason he was summon here? “I haven’t had much chance for sight-seeing, so I do not have an answer, Caesar.” said Jason honestly. Having his view of his fair city, blocked by the many Romans welcoming back their soldiers after 3 long years away from home, when they paraded back into the city as heroes, not that Jason would have really observe the architecture anyways if he was given the chance. 

“Well I would suggest you take a day to observe the modifications I have done. I feel like Rome is quickly returning to her former glory since my reign; if not more than before.” He claimed in an arrogant tone, with the same air he wore in the celebration of “his” victory.

“Caesar is there another reason why you summoned me here?” questioned Jason even though he knew the reason wasn’t only to hear complements or to aggravate Jason. 

“Right, how could I have almost forgotten,” replied Octavian in the most flamboyant manner. “How old are you brother?”

“I am currently twenty-seven” said Jason, wondering why Octavian would give a damn about anyone aside from himself.

“Right, don’t you believe that you’re getting a bit old, to be in my army?” Octavian pestered “I mean, you’ve been lucky so far to have spared that pretty little head of yours, but how long will it last?” he said as he walked closer to Jason.

“I have been lucky” Jason affirmed, “but I do not believe in marital life.”

“Of course you don’t, you do not have the confidence as I do” said Octavian now almost boasting, Jason had to hold his tongue, Octavian was only trying to anger him, but to what point? Jason wondered. 

“Reyna is very lucky to be my wife, and I do find that I have made her a better women. Many do say she is the exemplary wife of Rome.” He continued, “so that’s why I arrange your marriage with a lovely maiden south to us; in that land we conquered a while back. Do you remember brother?”

“They have been many land in the south in which we have conquered,” said Jason biting his tongued “specifically which one?” 

“The little barbaric one” confirmed Octavian as if this answer was any more precise.

“I am honoured brother, that you are so concern with my personal affairs, but my only wish is to serve Caesar.” Jason answered easily thinking of the little prince rather than Octavian. 

“I suppose you would be happier with a slut, one who was like your mother? Makes senses, if there is something wrong with the pup it’s always the bitch’s fault.” Octavian taunted while pouring himself some wine.

Jason kept his head down, refusing to meet Octavian’s eyes, unwilling to let him know how much he had gotten under his skin. Just remember if I remain silent, I can leave, he attempted to convince himself in vain. Octavian might have noticed that Jason was losing his patience, because his grinned grew larger.

“I have always believed that bad blood causes bad off springs, truly a shame that father’s blood couldn’t salvage your being,” he proclaimed while pointing his cup up and down Jason figure. 

“I haven’t realized that I was such a disgrace,” Jason snarled “I hope that Rome’s conquest will let you oversee my poor blood” he barely manage to slip out without sounding to threatening. Also wishing that he could just walk away but fully knowing that such an option was none existing. 

“Caesar, Reyna wishes to have an audience with you” the guard announced, Reyna was standing right beside him, looking annoyed.

Octavian gave out a loud sight “oh well, Jason I suppose we must cut our conversation for now.” He announced looking mildly disappointed, “you may depart”

“Of course Caesar” he gave a low bow, then exited as quickly as possible, 

Rage was seething from Jason; he thanks whichever gods gave him the patient that had restrained himself from beating Octavian. His breathing was still rigid, Octavian mockery taunted him, and Jason wanted nothing more than to throw him against wall and bash his head. He made a quick turn heading to the arena to burn the energy but standing near the door he saw Frank, spacing back and forth worriedly. 

“Frank, were you waiting for me?” Jason questioned somewhat surprised to see him,

“Yes, I was, I’m glad to see that Reyna interference works” he responded smiling shyly

“You are the reason why she came?” Jason question with a raise eyebrow back at Frank “thanks” 

“I couldn’t have our favourite commander eaten by lions, now could I?” he shrugs 

***  
“Why are you here, my sweetest flower?” interrogated Octavian.

“My dear husband I would have hoped that my presence would bring joy to you,” she responded inhospitably. “Considering your schedule I am surprise that you would have time for the commander rather than the many pressing problem Rome has been having.” 

At this statement Octavian straightened himself, to appear more imposing, “as a husband I understand that you feel lonely, but as Caesar I cannot yield to your mockery, I would have you know. That I do in fact work every day of my life.” He said sourly, “it isn’t my fault if Rome decided to have all of these emotional responses, and directed it to the crown.”

Reyna rolled her eyes, “Caesar although the origins of the angered may not be the fault of the crown, you do need to take more time in to solving It.”

As Reyna lecture, Octavian was more or less being obvious that he was not listening; he had the audacity to pick up the grapes boll on the stand and throwing each individual grape in his mouth. 

“Reyna, my dear, what is your true reason to being here?” Octavian asked long enough for another grape to be launched in his mouth. 

“For the well-being of Rome, why else would I stand here watching you act like a fool,” Reyna hissed at Octavian. 

“Like a fool? You have the audacity to call me a fool!” he proclaimed straightening himself once more, 

“Only a fool would executed every Roman which disapprove of your reign” Reyna snapped at him, “Daedalus was the inventor and architecture of many of our weapons. To kill him over an argument was the most foolish thing you could have done!”

“I CAN’T SHOW MERCY TO THESE PEOPLE,” bellowed Octavian, angered pulsing though his vein and eyes with a tint of madness. “The moment these snakes finds your weakness they will eat you inside out!” 

“You are angering your enemy, how can you not see that!” Octavian was avoiding her glare, refusing to look in her eyes, she continued. “The more you try to subdue them in fear, the more they rebel. The more they rebel, the more aggressive you become. Can’t you see we cannot win this war?” 

“I HAVE THE GODS’ FAVOUR” Octavian stated gesturing all around him-self, “I will rain fire on Rome, if they so much as attack my robe!” breathing heavily Octavian looks up at Reyna, his face was red with angered, knuckle whiten by fear. “Get out, I don’t have time for this” Octavian said, no louder than a whispered, Reyna gave a low bow, and exited the room with Piper. 

***  
Octavian’s anger was still boiling in his skin, how dare she he kept thinking to himself, how dare she question the great Caesar? How are they all defying me he thought furiously remembering all of the discontent faces just days ago when he was with yelling at Jason and now Reyna expression of disapproval scar him as well.

“Caesar, how do you fair,” asked a tall man with dark curly hair and a pointed beard, interrupting the train of thought Octavian was having, Octavian only grunts as acknowledgement that he heard him. 

“Kronos, how do you always show up in the most useless of times,” snarled Octavian as he met Kronos eyes. 

If Kronos felt insulted by this statement he did a good job hiding it. “Caesar, what troubles you?” 

“Many things, so many visions” Octavian lied throwing his arm in the air, “my son, I know that he isn’t fit to inherit my place… but I cannot stop time, one day he will take my place. And the woman you chose for me…”

“Reyna is loved by many, she is the definition of a perfect Roman woman. And Caesar you are young, too young to worry over this mortal trivial detail. You needn’t worry of this,” said Kronos soothingly, “you will live on for centuries.”


	4. trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember when you read major-character death? well here you have it you sadistic monster!!! Nah i need (maybe) but yeah this chapter took a lot more time than i first thought it would (mainly since i had like one paragraph left to do before i felt it was good enough to send. i was wrong.
> 
> ANYWAYS!! thank you so much for the comments and kudos they really make my day!!! and if you find something that doesn't make too much sense correct me!!!!! I'm human and want to correct myself!
> 
> I love you guys ^^b

“Your Imperial Majesty, are you certain that was wise?” Piper asked nervously, “he doesn’t seem to be the type in which you would want to anger...” Piper added fretfully 

“He can’t kill me, I don’t believe that he could be that dumb” Reyna said in an haste, “why are you even trying to act sympathetic?” Reyna sneered, “Isn’t this amusing? I’m sure this would make great materials for gossip.”

“What? How could you say that?” said Piper, stopping mid-track. Incredibly insulted that anyone could actually believe that she would actually enjoy another person’s suffering. She wasn’t Octavian. “Just because you don’t thrust people, doesn’t mean that everyone is here to get at you” Piper spat before she could help herself.

“Yes, because aside from him everyone else is constantly supporting and aiding me.” Reyna stated mockingly. 

Piper was going to retort but hesitated, she honestly didn’t know how to respond to this. In the court or really anywhere no one has ever helped her. Piper didn’t know if it was out of fear of getting Octavian’s wrath or they simply found Reyna’s struggle amusing. But the end point was that Reyna was right. As long as Piper knew her she had never had someone to help her. Everyone around her was too afraid, or they were unable to help her regardless. Piper figure that this notion that she wanted honestly to help Reyna. Having a shoulder to cry on, on someone to confine too. These were things that the Empress of Rome lacked and didn’t understand. 

Slowly, Piper did what she wanted to do since a long time. She grabbed the arm of Reyna, who just look at her with her auburn eyes, and Piper brought her close into a tight hug. Reyna stiffen at the touch but Piper didn’t mind, she released her grip and leaned up to grab Reyna face into her palm. 

“I don’t know if you trust me, but I do to you, and I’ll do my best to protect you.” Said Piper while still holding Reyna’s face and staring at her intensely.

Reyna blush slightly, her face reflected for the first times that Piper met her: confusion. Piper expected this reaction, she isn’t going to lie, she actually expected that Reyna was going to reveal a hidden weapon and stab her.

Reyna, who was still blushing, pushed Piper's hand from her face. Reyna was never used to close contact; she always looked mildly uncomfortable whenever a stranger touched her. With the exception of Luke and Percy, but the tint of red that brushes lightly on her cheeks made Piper very happy. 

“I appreciate the sentiment.” Reyna finally stated firmly, “but you cannot protect me.” 

“I’m not a total weakling, despite my appearance.” Piper said while looking at herself, arm extended.

“I don’t base opinion on genders or appearance,” Reyna said simply, pushing Piper away and taking the lead once more, “And as I said he couldn’t kill me, my death will make me a martyr. And this is the last thing he needs.”

***  
Even though Reyna had said all of that to Piper, no one of it was true. She was terrified. While Octavian couldn’t kill her, or maimed her, he would without hesitation harm Jason or Luke. On her walk back to her chamber with Piper, she was repeating the conversation in her head over and over again. Questioning every thing she said to Octavian, wondering if she had made the right decision of taking up in the offer to distract Octavian so that Jason wouldn’t have to be with Octavian alone. Of course I have she told herself, she had to protect any Roman that was in her grasp. Loosing Daedalus was bad enough she couldn’t loose Jason as well. If that would happen they would have an uprising in their hands, one that they couldn’t afford right now. 

Aurum and Argentum, her two guard-dog, were rubbing their nose against her hand, and nudging at her legs. Probably an attempt to make Reyna feel better, she lightly scratch his ears, to ease some of the anxiety that she was giving them. 

“Your Imperial Majesty, would you like it if I brought you some wine?” Piper asked, “to ease your stressed.” Saying that Reyna wanted to deny it, stating that she wasn’t stressed, but Reyna nodded weakly anyways. 

At her signal Piper left for a few minutes, then returned shortly after with an urn of wine and poured a glass. After tasting it, making sure that it wouldn’t hold any poison she then passed it to Reyna to drink. 

“Your Imperial Majesty, do you wish to tell me what has been bothering you?” Piper asked, Reyna noted on how her eyes were always swimming in blue and grey whenever she seemed nervous or hesitant. 

“I’ve been meaning to tell you, I would actually prefer if you stop calling me like that.” Reyna said, “I do not care for title.” Reyna continued before taking a sip of her wine. 

“What should I call you then?”

“Reyna… yes Reyna would be good,” Reyna mused to her goblet of wine

“… Reyna,” Piper said out loud to herself, Piper looked a little to please in the way she said it, almost as if she was savouring the name. Reyna decided to ignore that, and brought her attention back to the wine, contemplating how she should protect Jason and Luke. 

“Reyna, why do you wish for me to use your name? Why now?” Piper asked, leaning closer to Reyna.

Reyna didn’t know why, it is not as if she trusted Piper any more that she did the day before. While always being called Your Imperial Majesty was irritating, she found herself with knowing that it wasn’t the reason why she asked Piper to stop calling her that. Although she won’t deny that the action in which Piper did before was a fraction of the reason. Reyna have always appreciated that Rome has never truly changed Piper; in a way she envied her.  
“Being called Your Imperial Majesty all day takes it toll, and I would rather not hear it more than necessary. I do not need to be reminded of my position in my own chamber.” 

“Oh, that’s why…” Reyna took in note of the disappointment in Piper’s voices. “Do you wish for me to retire for the night?” Piper added before Reyna could have asked her what was the matter, but Reyna only nodded and Piper left the chamber.

As Reyna watches Piper walk away, she never felt so frustrated. She wanted to open up to someone, she wanted to talk to Piper, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t and she didn’t know what to do. 

A few second after Piper came rushing back in, “your imperia— I mean Reyna…. Caesar is coming here!” Piper said in haste. 

“Octavian? Why would he be coming here?” Reyna questioned, she couldn’t see why he would come to see her. She questioned and contradicted him many time in the past, and never once did he come to see her.

Just as she finishes asking the question, Octavian arrived with two of his larger bodyguard. Piper immediately stood protectively in front of Reyna. Forming a sort of shield from the guard and Reyna. Reyna gently put her hand onto Piper’s shoulder and passed her.

“Slave you may leave” Octavian ordered in a stern voices, Piper didn’t even blink, she just stared him down. 

“You are not my master. You cannot order me around.” Piper said gridding her teeth with more confidence than Reyna believed that she’d possessed. “As longs as you pose a threat to my lady I will not move.” 

“A threat? To my beloved?” Octavian asked shock, “How could I hurt my flower?” 

“I could think of many ways,” Piper answered narrowing her eyes to Octavian. Reyna placed her hand on Piper shoulder. 

“Piper, you may retire for the night,” Reyna commanded, Piper eyes reflected pure betrayal and confusion, but nodded; she gave a bow to Reyna and exited the room. Reyna appreciated the gesture, but she wasn’t weak enough that she needed someone to protect her against Octavian. 

Reyna did feel a sting of sadness, imagining what Piper must be feeling at the moment, but didn’t linger on it. Right now she had a more pressing issue. 

“Caesar, I apologize for my servant’s rudeness, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again” promised Reyna.

“I couldn’t care less of rudeness of ants,” Octavian said while waving his hand, “at any moment I can end their miserable life.” 

“How magnanimous” Reyna said, resisting to roll her eyes. 

“But I cannot have people underestimate me, so—” he said snapping his finger, and one of the guard left. Reyna stared in horror knowing what was going to happen next, she needed to get Piper before he gets her.

As Reyna ran behind the praetorian, the other one restrained her; Octavian looked more than please with the current situation. 

“Caesar, I implore you to stop your men!” Reyna growled,

“Reyna, my sweet, if you are imploring, you need to beg a bit more.” Octavian stated as if he was telling her that the sky was blue.

“What?” Reyna said, her tone growing more dangerous by the second. 

“I understand why you wouldn’t want to beg for that thing. Now lets discuss about what you said earlier, and a few other things.” 

“I do not have time for this Caesar, called off your men, now.” 

“Why should I do that? Why are you so protective over that wench?” Octavian questioned in disgust. 

“Called him off, now.” Reyna repeated.

“umm, I don’t like your tone, guard, maybe if you tightened your grip her manner might improve?”

The praetorian did as Octavian commanded and Reyna could feel the air from her lungs escape in a swift movement and finding it very hard to breath. She had to get out of his grip, she had to go save Piper

***

Piper was upset, as she walked down the corridors, she felt pained that Reyna didn’t even let her help. She thought that she had finally managed to make Reyna trust her. Why wouldn’t she let Piper defend her? Piper thought that she saw all of the sign that Reyna might have possibly share the same sentiment as herself. Piper hugged her for hell sake, she hugged her, and Reyna didn’t even push her away. And she even told Piper to drop the honorific, she asked to be called Reyna, and only her closest friends called her that. Even when Octavian called her by her given name, Reyna looked extremely vexed and annoyed.

Piper came to a sudden stop, hearing footstep: a large man was walking toward her. As she turned around she saw the praetorian that was with Octavian at the end of the hallways quickly coming closer to her. 

“Hello little dove,” the praetorian stated, smiling cynically, “come here.” 

Not giving the chance for the praetorian to come and get her, Piper quicken her space, the praetorian did the same. Fear started to envelop her, the man chasing her was three times her size. Even if she had a weapon she wouldn’t be able to beat him. Taking a sharp turned into the servant passageway, Piper hoped that she could lose him. 

Once she saw the door, she ran toward it and grabbed the edge to open it. She found that it was stuck; normally it would have little resistance. However never like this, pulling on the door harder, she found that it would only opened little by a time. Piper turned around to find that the praetorian was closing in, Piper gave a final effort to open the door. It opened enough just so she could squeeze herself in. She crawled into the small opening and closed the door inside the praetorian face. She could hear him, hitting the door, with all of his strength. Piper backs away, looking for something to block the door. She couldn’t find anything, frozen by fear, she ran down the stairs hoping to lose him in the maze of the palatine. 

Piper could hear the praetorian screaming cursed, the impact of his sword onto the door. She knew that he couldn’t break into it, and was relieves that he didn’t attempt to open the door, but she had to get out of here. 

Her lungs started to hurt, she couldn’t remember which hallway led where, desperately she turned left hoping to find an exit where no praetorian would be. On either side torches brighten up the narrow hallway, Piper tried to slow down her breathing, he wasn’t behind her, he was most likely still at the door hopelessly attempting to destroy the concrete door. She had been running to what felt like a century. The palatine was a maze, there’s no way he could know where she was, and she was safe. 

Finally she found an exit; slowly she opened the door to see if the coast was clear. Relief flooded her sense, no one was in sight, and the place was completely deserted. She slowly opened the door so she could slide herself out. 

Sticking close to the wall Piper could feel her heart speed speeding up, wondering what will happen to her now. Can she ever return to Reyna or is she considered a criminal now? She was far too reckless with Octavian, she should have known that he would vent himself upon herself. She didn’t want to have Reyna dismissing her be the last thing she heard from her, no that would be too sad. She could feel her eyes heating up, she was lost, and no one was here to save her. Nor would she force someone to help her, it had too much of a chance for failure. 

As Piper started to turn into the garden, she felt something grab her by the wrist from behind. Piper let out a heart-wrenching scream, and grabbed one of his daggers and stabs him on the side. But lost her balance in the struggle, quickly she got up to escape him. 

As Piper took a sharp turn the guard grabbed her by the arm and yanked her backward. Piper tried to jerk away. But the guard was much stronger than she was. She looked up at the eyes of her attacker, and saw nothing but pure glee. Piper tried to push him away, but no matter what she would do he wouldn’t budge. Her eyes darted in every direction, trying to find a way out of this. 

He grabbed his sword and thrust it at Piper—

***

Jason was returning from Frank’s place, he regretted having as many drinks as he had. Walking around the palatine, acknowledging that he destine to never finding his chamber. He was so close to resigning to falling asleep in the hallways. As Jason turned to walk toward the garden seeing how fluffy the grass look, and rationalising that sleeping on grass would be more comfortable than the ground. As he walked toward his temporally bed, he heard a muffle scream, a woman scream, and without a second thought he ran in the direction of the scream. The voice was familiar to Jason, but he couldn’t remember from where. Running quicker, hoping to stop whatever was happening before anything could happen, he came in front of a praetorian holding a sword who was piercing in Reyna’s lady-in-waiting side. 

Jason stared in shock for a few second, staring at the limbless lady-in-waiting, until this event catch up with him and angered replaced the confuse reaction he had. 

“What in Pluto’s hell, is going on here!” Jason demanded griping his sword, anger surging in his vein, knowing far to well that it was Octavian doing. 

“Commander? What are you doing here?” the praetorian asked, fear in his voices, retracting his sword in one swift motion. Jason hissed angrily at the guard, running toward the woman and placing his hand on her wound: placing pressure on it and making sure that she wouldn’t fall unconscious.

“Go called a physician, Now!” Jason ordered harshly. The praetorian stood there, baffle for a second until Jason stared him down and he left running. 

“Listen to me, open your eyes” Jason pleaded to the woman he was holding in his arms.

“Arg— you’re hurting me…” she said weakly, but kept her eyes on him. Even if they were unfocused. 

“You need to keep pressure on the wound... I'm so sorry…” 

“Piper… that’s my name,” she said weakly.

“Piper, that’s a beautiful named” Jason stated weakly, Piper just nodded to his declaration.


	5. friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wow, school is really really demanding...... anyways thanks you so much for reading this!! And if you guys haven't been so nice and sending kudos i probably wouldn't have gotten the strength to continue this story!! I seriously love you guys so much!!!
> 
> PS, i probably need a beta, coz my english is shit, so once again, feel free to help me out and if you see anything that doesn't make too much sense tell me and ill correct it!

Jason stood beside Piper, talking to her, trying to slow down his heartbeats, reassuring her that she will be all right. The girl didn’t seem too convinced, even passive would describe her current mood. 

As Jason looks up to see where in Tartarus the praetorian could be, he saw him running back with a physician. The physician looked shock when he saw her, pure horror even.

“What happened to her?” he asked angrily rushing toward her and removing her from Jason grip. “Why wasn’t she brought directly to me instead of being left on the cold floor?” he continued with an annoyed tone as he wrapped another layer of bandages around the wound. 

“I didn’t want to reopen her wound...” Jason answered honestly, “I am not informed of the location of the infirmary, I would have wasted more time looking—” 

“What about you?” the blond physician barked at the guard cutting Jason off, “or is it normal that all of you people don’t know where to find me?” he continued, not letting either of them to talk. He must have realized that neither Jason nor the guard had anything to add for their defense, for after barely a second of silence he turned around given them a new order.

“For now just help me get her in the infirmary.” He demanded, clearly exhausted after the small rant.

Jason picked Piper up, glancing down at her, he notice that she became even more paled. His grip grew tighter. He will make Octavian pay for this. He followed the physician around the palatine, turning right and left until they finally made it to the infirmary. The physician directly ordered Jason to lightly place her on a vacant bed and he went rummaging through his stock. He then ordered Jason and the praetor to stay patiently in the waiting room, because they were told that they were useless and would only get in his way. Jason was torn between leaving her at once to see the state that Reyna was in, but was worried with the consequence of leaving the lady-in-waiting alone with the very man who almost killed her. Jason hands were still shaken, he never enjoy the sight of a women blood, they are being that should never get hurt, they were meant to be protected. Jason let out soft chuckles as he imagined Reyna feeding him to her dogs if she heard him spouting such nonsense. Although he knew one thing for sure, and that was that Reyna would kill him if he let her lady-in-waiting alone with the praetorian. The very same man kept glancing up at Jason, looking confused, most likely wondering why Jason was treating him as if he did something unforgivable. Jason figured that Reyna would probably be safe and knowing that the praetorian wouldn’t do anything reckless as long as Jason was around made him relax even if it was a for a bit. Needlessly Jason still took a mental note to see Reyna once he has made contact with Frank to look after Piper. 

What seemed like centuries later, the physician came out hand drench in blood, but looked relieved.

“Will she be alright?” Jason rose nervously; she looked in such pained when he last saw. Jason dreaded the outcome. 

“Don’t worry she’ll be fine,” he responded with a weak smile. “I’ve stop the bleeding, I just need to cauterize the wound so it doesn’t open again….” 

“Can’t we just wait until it heals normally?” 

“If she was an aristocrat then yes, but she is a slave. She’ll be dispose of if she cannot work within the fortnight.” He answered honestly and looking quite upset by this known fact. “This is for the best, I’ll give her a few hours to regain her strength. You should also get some rest” 

“Thank you…”

“Apollo, Apollo is my name.” The blond physician answered nonchalantly 

“Apollo” Jason corrected himself, “but I would rather stay here.” 

“if you say so commander.” He shrugged, as he started to pick up his material 

Once Apollo was out from sight and the praetor has escaped, Jason walked in to see how she was doing. Upon seeing her face he could have easily broken his heart. Her once tan-face was now almost as white as snow; she looked in extreme agony. Jason supposed to interrogate her in the morning after she obtained at least one decent night to rest. 

During the entire procedure Jason stayed in the room besides her, Apollo quickly got annoyed with Jason presence and kicked him out claiming that he was embarrassing him. Being banished to wait outside was unbearable for Jason. He couldn’t bear the notion that he was supposed to just sit outside and wait. Upon hearing Piper’s scream he wanted to rush back inside to help in any way possible but knew that he would only be in the way, that lack of power he felt at that moment was truly agonizing.

****

Slowly opening her eyes, Piper was in pain, not the everyday sort of back ached or anything as trivial as such. But like the time she was stabbed back in Greece for stealing from that greedy merchant. Once her eyes were fully opened she realized that her left eye wouldn’t open completely. Confused she looked around, this was not her room, nor was it any room she has visited with Reyna. It was a simple open room, with white drapes hanging on tight ropes dancing along the wind. The room was sparsely decorated, having a row of unused bed along the wall of both sides.

“how are you feeling?” a blonde soldier asked her weakly, slowly she turned her head to the soldier who was sitting right next to her. She recognise him, he was the very same man who saved her. 

“sore throat,” Piper responded weakly, knowing fully well she should be thankful of being alive, but couldn’t bring herself to be truly happy about it. 

“here…” he said as he pass her a goblet, he held her head up and started to pour the water into her mouth. At this point Piper was somewhat annoyed with being babied, but was too much in pained to actually protest of his action. 

“I'm surprise that you were willing to save me.” Piper stated after taking a huge sip from the water, removing the soldier from his trance. “I suppose it’s a way to make you sleep better at night.” 

“Helping you didn’t help me sleep better.” He stated looking bitter, as if he was remembering an unpleasant dream. However Piper didn’t care enough to continue that train of thought. 

“Oh? I suppose it’s to be expected that you wouldn’t feel anything after raiding helpless villages, you probably became dull to the feeling of taking another life.” 

“No one gets use to that feeling.” The blond soldier stated quietly, “and I saved you, I wasn’t the one who tabbed you.”

“oh? Really, I'm terribly sorry, but you all look the same to me.” Piper snarled trying to suppress the sarcasm to drip from her words but she was too frustrated to care. 

“Not every soldier are like those praetorian, if you visited the army you would see that we are much more civilize than the monkeys in armour.”

“Phhhh, I have met those barbarian from your so call army, the pride of Rome? Trust me, when I say you are all the same.” 

“we don’t do it for pleasure, it’s for the greater good.” Jason said in a defendant toned, clearly getting more offended by the second, but Piper wouldn’t have this arrogant piss of shit believed that Rome was some god send or anything as stupid as that to the other regions who were dealing just fine before they showed up. 

“The greater good for one person. That isn’t justice” Piper hissed back at the soldier 

“It’s the greater good for Rome, which Egypt is part of, I remind you” Jason snapped at her. 

“Egypt is her own, she will never bow down to you. The politician might, never will the people.” Piper snarled, keeping her glare focus on the soldier.

“well then I suppose that you recuperate faster than most if you already have this much energy.” He finally said. 

The soldier stood by her side for the entire day after their argument. Piper couldn’t discover why he was there, at first she felt subconscious to sleep while he was there but as she awoken he was still there. The soldier didn’t attempt to start any conversation again; he would only watch her with pity in his eyes, which fill Piper with annoyance. While the other half of the time is would be an orient who would take guard duty. Piper assumed that they would leave her alone after she has basically insulted everything they stood for, but they were rigid and stone dumb, for they never left her side.  
****  
“Jason!” Frank called out happily, and quickly pulling Jason far from the hearing range of Piper. “Jason, listen, I cant guard Piper tonight, my grandmother has summoned me…” Jason looked shock and disappointed, but quickly covered it.

“is it for your fiancé?” Jason asked, leading Frank nodding in fear. 

Frank knew that Jason must have heard the distress in Frank’s speech but didn’t remark on it, and Frank was thankful for Jason’s tack. 

“So I’ll be leaving, and you should probably find a new guard to look after your lady.”

“I'm not interested in her.” Jason cringe, but Frank ignored his reaction and left dreading his own encounter. 

The moment Frank received summons from his grandmother, it was an understatement that he was nervous. He simply knew that he screwed up the engagement meeting so bad, that they would call the whole thing off. Taking a deep breath, he entered the sedan chair where his grandmother was waiting. 

“Frank, what had you done during the engagement?” Frank’s grandmother asked brutally, not even giving him or the plebeian a chance to talk or Frank to fully sit down. 

“I can explain— no I really can’t,” Frank finish lamely.

“They agreed,” she said, with a huge grin, that Frank has never seen. “The Hadrianus want you to be their daughter’s husband.” 

“huh?” Frank said rather stunt, how could she had found him charming? He was a complete idiot, no even saying idiot was to kind. He was a complete moron. 

“She even said she wouldn’t mind seeing you again,” the grandmother said gleefully. “with an escort of course.”

“she did? How?” Frank asked lamely, because the entire scenario was so surreal, the super cute perfect girl couldn’t be interested in Frank, it was just impossible. 

“What do you mean how?” she said; her facial expression turning back to her usual state, which was a frowned. “With both of you bringing an escort of course, don’t take Jason, or else she’ll see her mistake and choose him.”

***  
“She said yes!” Frank shouted, while Percy back up a few feet away, 

“Is that a good thing? Because I thought that you were deeply infatuated with her.” Percy asked honestly confused, 

“It’s a great thing!” Frank shouted again, seriously was he able to do anything but shout? “I thought that I was a complete idiot! But to have her agree, this is like a dream come true!”

“Yeah, what you did was pretty stupid… what family was she part of again?” Percy asked, because for some reason it sounded really familiar. 

“Hadrianus, you know one of the most powerful and wealthy family in Rome.” Frank stated sounding slightly baffles. 

Percy just frown at the named, “no I don’t think that its…. But that’s cool, and she picked you? Wow that’s awesome they must have had millions of applicants! Congrats!” Percy said while patting Frank’s back. 

“How do you not know the Hadrianus? How is that even possible?” asked Frank.

“Maybe Annabeth mentioned their name…. but why?” Percy said with a puzzle tone while Frank looked like he wanted to tear Percy head for being so ignorant. 

“Percy, how?”

Percy saw a flies glazing behind Frank’s head and found himself remembering back when he and Annabeth were walking down near the stable. Before they became pregnant he and Annabeth often did horse back ridding, but now Nico told her to stop, well not for always—  
“Nico!!” Percy shouted, leading to make Frank jump. “Yes that’s Nico’s cognomen, Hadrianus! Knew it came from somewhere.” Percy said really happy about himself for remembering without any outside help.

“Nico? Who?” Franks asked bewildered. 

“Our doctor and friend,” Percy responded with a bright smile, “you know, the little brother of Bianca?” Percy stated the last bit a little less happy, because whenever her name came up, well lets just say it wasn’t really a good memory for them. “Wait, do they know?” Percy stated a little worried. 

“Percy, not everyone boast of breaking every law.” Frank stated, “no they don’t know, and I would rather not get Hazel involve to be honest.”

“Okay, yeah do that, and Frank, make sure no matter what Nico never finds out who you are, because he will end you.” Percy stated honestly, the one thing that Nico valued most was family. Plus their family had so many connections that everyone else would turn a blind eye if they were responsible of a murder of a certain Asian soldier. Which is probably why they haven’t really had many offers now that Percy thinks about it.

“Well considering who they are and what they went through you can hardly blame them.” The Latino Greek stated from behind them, causing Frank to jump back. “I mean they lost the jewel of the family, and a few other members.” Leo continued as he picked up a few cookies from the counter. 

Frank turned to Percy, looking at him in a very confuse fashion. Percy on the other never mind the Latino man, he even liked his company, he was fun, and the most like him in Rome. That he met at least. 

“Hey Leo, help me out tell Frank how that family is.” Percy asked as he took one of the blue cookies, His mother send them to him just this morning so they were still fresh and delicious and slightly salty. Many stayed away from it because of its unusual colour, but this was his mother trick from preventing thieve from stealing their food. 

“Well they aren’t that bad, Hazel is really sweet, like insanely nice compare to the others. Although it might be a question of them getting to know you.” Leo explained as he grabbed a few more cookies.

Upon hearing this Frank was more or less relieved he wanted the Hadrianus to like him, but he dreaded their reaction if they ever learned his affiliation with Percy’s plan, especially if they lost a member because of Percy.


	6. house of whisper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am so proud that i finally updated this piece of crap that took me so long to get back to (school is a b**ch) *self pat on back* I really enjoyed writing this chapter nevertheless, the characters in this chapter are without a doubt one of my favourite characters within this story! You'll see what i mean!
> 
> NOw without any more delay here is your fic ^^
> 
> PS: okay so as you most likely noticed, i need a beta to correct my crappy English, so really anyone will do, and i really mean ANYONE will do! Everyone is better than me with words!!! so plz help me! 
> 
> I addicted to kudos and comment are even worse, those are my drugs

“Wise girl, shouldn’t you be going to bed soon?” Percy asked as he nibbled on Annabeth’s shoulder. 

“Soon seaweed brain, I just need to look at these plan one more time.” She answered exhaustedly, turning the page of the note that her uncle Daedalus gave her. Once her uncle Daedalus knew he was going to be executed for treason against the crown he promptly gave it to Annabeth telling her to hide it from Octavian. 

“Percy, these notes are amazing, there’s a model of every war machine imaginable. Look at this” she shoved a parchment with a drawing in three dimensions of a catapult but with an arrow instead of a boulder. The weapon was a little larger than the man showed in the drawing, to demonstrate the size of the contraption. 

Percy face darken, he opened his mouth twice before he was able to formulate any words. “Are you really sure you want to do this?” he said looking at her pitifully, “we don’t have a bad life, Nico had already warned us that the stress is causing you and the baby pain…” 

“As long as that fool emperor is in power I wont be able to sleep peacefully.” She proclaimed while grabbing the parchment back from Percy’s hand, “nor can I stand still while he execute every bright man in fear that they might overthrow him. Tomorrow we are commencing operation Greek fire,” she stated tiredly, but her eyes held onto the conviction she had. Percy let out a sigh in defeat. 

“Okay wise girl, you made your point, but you won’t be able to do anything if you faint because of exhaustion.” He said picking her up to drag her back in their bed, with her cries of protest and laughter echoed the room. 

***

Reyna gaze out of the infirmary window, she couldn’t come up with a rational reason to stay any longer. She alternated from stealing glances from Piper and returning her attention to the trees, and listening to the crickets sing their song oblivious to the horror around them. Piper was more sober, looking outside the same window in which Reyna was observing. Although Reyna couldn’t see where Piper’s eyes were looking at. The other maid which both women ignored was re-bandaging Piper’s wound. Reyna couldn’t help looking at Piper, Reyna sincerely hoped to the gods that the wound that Octavian’s Praetorian left wouldn’t scar. Piper on the other hand became quieter, less rebellious. Which pained Reyna, she remembered just the day before, how naïve Piper was: believing that she could protect her. Everyone who stood by her always got hurt. Piper kept giving her glances, but Reyna wasn’t brave enough to meet her eyes. 

When the maid was finished she excused herself leaving the room and having the awkward silence fill the emptiness the maid had left. 

“you know this isn’t your fault right?” Piper asked breaking Reyna’s concentration, Reyna just smile weakly at this remark. She knew that Piper wanted her to feel better, considering that all of the time she came to visit her, Reyna was gloomy and depressed. She supposed that her company didn’t bring comfort to her, Piper was probably only refraining from cursing Reyna for fear of being punished. 

“Reyna—” 

“Should I call for Apollo?” Reyna asked cutting Piper off, she didn’t want to hear excuses for what happened to Piper. Nothing could atone for what was done. “you must be in pain” Reyna elaborated as she saw Piper confused expression. 

“no, I do believe that I can work today if you needed my assistance.” Piper stated, although Reyna knew that these were lies. She heard about the injuries from both Apollo and Jason, Reyna knew that these were not the wounds that would heal in three days. Apollo did beg her to take Piper regardless on the time it took for her recovery, and normally Reyna would, but she didn’t know if she could look into those grey eyes, they weren’t the same as she once knew, these were tainted and it was all her fault. Reyna wouldn’t ever abandon her of course, but she couldn’t look at her without feeling guilt. 

“Reyna—” Piper started 

But something caught Reyna’s eyes, before Piper could ask what she saw Reyna stood abruptly and left the room. Reyna gave one last look to Piper before she exited. Reyna should have stopped thinking of her as soon as she stepped out of the door. And yet here she is, unable to forget her face, the way her gaze pierced her, it refused to leave her. 

“I didn’t mean to intrude my empress” Kronos stated once Reyna was outside from the infirmary, standing a few feet away from him. “I was planning to wait until you were done.” 

“What are you doing here Kronos?” snarled Reyna, eyeing the elder man.

“Isn’t customary to visit the ill and cripple?” Kronos said bluntly, “I haven’t came for you, imperial grace, I am here for the girl.”

“you are not permitted to go anywhere near Piper am I clear?” Reyna ordered narrowing her auburn eyes toward Kronos’. 

“I haven’t realized that you grew so close to your maid,” Kronos stated sympathetically, “I know how it feels to love someone who isn’t attainable, my deepest apology for your loss.” 

“I haven’t lost anybody” Reyna added, “Do not pretend you know how it feels to love, someone of your sort is incapable of any emotion so complicated.” 

“I tend to surprise many with what I am capable of.” Kronos said waving off the insult in which Reyna threw at him. “Now tell me is this love unrequired? Or does she whispered your name as well?”

“Do not mock me Kronos, I do not need you to patronize me.” Reyna snarled as she began to walk away.

“I dearly hope that your lady-in-waiting heals, it would be a shame if you truly loose everything.” Kronos said while Reyna walked away. 

 

***

Drew was waiting for her next client; she heard from her employer that he was a general. I see that my reputation is growing; soon I can get out of this dump she thought to herself while brushing her hair and applying the final touch of her makeup. Admiring herself on her looking glass she had to admit, she was gorgeous tonight. Her oriental origin, made her exotic and thus more desirable than her fellow sisters at the concubinage. 

“Drew, your customer is waiting for you.” Circe, her elder sister, not in blood, but she was the one who trained Drew in everything she knew. Drew gave her brightest smile and followed her out. Outside her door, She was face with a hooded man; he seemed tense, as if he wanted to be anywhere but here. Drew sneered at the thought, a virgin most likely. 

“Relax honey, I don’t bite,” she teased playfully, grabbing his neck to bring him down to her level, “well, unless if you want me too” 

“ummm, can we go inside,” the general asked, fear, no sounds more like the voice of an awkward boy. Drew found it a bit annoying; she liked her man with more confidence. Maybe she could draw it out of him, and having a general as a regular would be extremely profitable. Grin and bear with it, she reminded to herself. 

“So eager,” she opened the door to her chamber, and started to strip, to her surprise he also strip off his coat, but he wasn’t looking at her and he didn’t remove anything aside from that one piece. If she weren’t so happy with what she saw she would have been downright insulted. The man was well built, tall and bulky. He also had oriental origin as she did, he looked very strong and he was a general. She could easily imagine him slamming her against the wall with his muscular arm, with ease she adds, she smiled at the thought. She brought her toga back up to conceal herself. One of her favourite part was to have her client strip her, or have them looking at her appreciate, and drooling. He was still standing his eyes kept glancing toward the window; he used his hand to graze the wall. Puzzle Drew just stared at him, trying to figure out what he was doing. Finally he calmed down a bit, he stared right at her. Drew felt a bit intimated with his stare. It wasn’t the lustful stare that she was use for, but as if he was trying to figure something out. 

“Is something wrong honey?” she asked, feeling less confident, 

“No, it’s just my first time in these type of areas…” he stated, laughing weakly, 

“Ohhh,” please don’t be a bottom; don’t be a bottom, “scared? Don’t worry, I’ll show you a fun time.” 

“what?”

At this point she started to strip, and his reaction was gold. His eyes were almost popping out, and his hand flew directly to his face. He aimlessly started looking for his coat, and threw it at her. Drew caught it, but was bewildered. This had never happen to her. Never did a man give her something to cover herself. Demand that she goes faster: yes, strip completely: obviously, and some other weird fetishes. But never did anyone ever told her to get dress. 

“You don’t need to do that.” He said while blushing furiously, “I have a fiancée…” Ohh, that’s why, he’s nervous, he wants to impress his fiancée. 

“So that’s why you here, don’t worry I’ll teach you everything you need to know.” 

“No, that’s not why I’m here!” the general stammered.

“So if you’re not here for my services why are you here?” she said finding impossible to conceal the annoyed toned from her voice, while folding her arms. 

“I am here for your services… well not really but close enough.” He said nervously brushing his hand against his hair while keeping his eyes far far away from Drew. “We are, sort of being watched right now….”

“By who? And who is being watched, and that doesn’t in fact make sense, what does this have to do with my skill?” 

“Caesar… And whose being watched, I can’t say, you’ll meet some of them soon enough… and what was the third question again?” he asked hesitantly.

“Why. Are. You. Here ” Drew stated every words, with irritation. 

“Oh, you’re known for your beauty, and you get customer from all sector— so, even if a general or a fisherman were to visit you, no one would look twice at it” 

“Yes, so what of it?” Drew admitted that she was really popular, but unfortunately she wasn’t in a position where she could reject customer, yet that is. 

“We have members from all sectors, but if we were to meet up at one another member’s house, Caesar’s spy would find it suspicious. But he would never think twice about these same man frequenting a concubinage.” The general smirk,

“But honey, you don’t even know me? How to do know that I won’t betray you?” 

“Drew Tanaka, mother Roman prostitute, while father a rich oriental, a Huns soldier, ummm, Caesar wouldn’t like that. Especially since he is pretty fascist. A successful prostitute, another point, and you are a women, our beloved Caesar would hate the fact that you were the glue that held the rebellion. And you are being frequently visit by our esteem new chief of warfare: Marcus Agrippa, who isn’t as smart as he would like to believe. And in my circle I have found that money is a good way to win loyalty.” He pauses looking stern and strong, as if nothing could surprise him. 

Ah, he’s not stupid, and I can finally see the man, Drew smirk to herself, knowing that is nervousness puberty boy phase must have been an act to draw her out. And this general must have done his study to have gain so much information of her she thought while playing with the necklace that Marcus gave her. 

“And even if you were to advise Caesar with our plan, why would he believe you? He hears millions of politician filling him with stories. He won’t believe yours.” He finished.

“So you want me to tell you everything Marcus told me? And get him to answer my question?” Drew said in her most seducing voice, sure give her two minutes and she could get Marcus to tell her anything and everything. 

“No, I don’t want you to drag attention, just continue to what you normally do. Marcus’ information is only the tip of the iceberg.”

“A what?” 

“An iceberg, have you seriously never seen one? They’re massive!” he said while extending his arm. “Anyways, your main mission will be to tell the others what you heard from the others. So telling beta and gamma what alpha told you. It’s the safest method of communication.” 

Drew just nodded along, this general wasn’t dumb, and for years Octavian wanted this concubinage closed. He thought that this industry was sinful to the truth sight of god and other bullshit like that. But considering that he couldn’t even begin with controlling the rebellion they were saved. Regardless she knew that once the rebellion fails his next move would be to annihilate all of the concubinage in Rome. 

“And obviously you’ll obtain regulars without even having to work, and with your growing popularly you be getting more real customers and your wage will most likely triple. This is of course without the added payment we will provide you.” 

Triple? Wow, this guy is really smart, though I won’t mind doing some “work” with him, “hon, you know a lot about me, but I don’t of you. Can I have your name? Or am I only allowed to know the plans?” 

“My name is Frank, and before I tell you the plan, I’ll tell you how you’ll know who is on our side, they’ll….” Frank, not the most impressive name Drew knew, but still she was able to let it pass. Before she could finish her train of thought, he came so close to her that she could smell the incense on him, probably something from his Asian origins, something that she use to have, but no longer use. Then he licked her neck. Drew frozed, she couldn’t even comprehend what just happen. Did he just lick her? This boy who couldn’t even look at her in the eyes? Who couldn’t even suggest something perverted! As he push himself back, Drew looked into his eyes, and he was still blushing, but it wasn’t the same blush that he held before… no it was the same, but after that act, she doubt that he was as innocent as she first believed. 

“…did you feel… what I did?” he asked nervously, still blushing. Drew ponder on that thought for a while, liking how his strong hands were resting lightly on her bare shoulder. 

“how you lick me? Yes, I did” she smirked

“no… you know.. how I… the way I did it?” He stammered at each word. “Ummm, okay so that’s the sign that we will do …. Do you remember it exactly…” he stopped looking away from Drew.

 

Drew thought back to it… her normal clients would normally lick from her nipple to her ear lobe, and nibble on it, or from her belly button to her nipple. But the way he did it, it was shorter, more curve like.

“Do it again.” Drew said while her smile grew larger, pushing him against the wall, grinding herself against him. “And do it harder,” she whispered to his ear. 

“What?” trying to back out, raising his head, to distant himself from her clutch. And pushing her farther from himself, 

“Well, I mean—” she said bringing his head back to her level, “I want to feel your touch all the way to my bones.”

Franks turned his head in every direction than her neck, the object he was supposed to be turned to. Frank looked nervously at Drew, maybe for confirmation, for her to tell him he can relax and he doesn’t need to do it. Drew however did neither. She lifted her head up so that Frank could have better access. He took a mouthful of air, before leaning in. Drew could feel his lip hesitant and soft, slightly shaking. She let out a soft moan, which by how Frank froze meant that she wasn’t helping. Though Drew didn’t care, this was too fun to pass by. Every times his lip as much touches her she would make another sound, slightly tugging at his hair or arm. They were a firm as they looked, Drew brought her hand from his arm all the way up to his neck into his hair.

“just do it.” she said in a hush toned. 

Frank still looked uncomfortable, even more than the first time when he licked her neck, but she knew that after tonight he wasn’t going to blush just from that small act. Frank leaned in quickly, and licked her neck, 

“Did you get it this time….” Frank mumble, this time 

“if I didn’t would you do it again?” she smirked, Drew had a vague idea of the shape he did, enough that if someone did it she would recognize it. She still loved the sensation that it gave her, the tenderness and hesitation, and knowing it can only get better, helped a lot. 

“if they do not lick that specific shape, they don’t belong with us. And you may continue like you do with every other customer.” Frank finished, and stood waiting for her to ask her question. 

“Alright, but what happens if they find out that I'm working for you guys and bring me in for torture or something?” 

“That wont happen, my associate has many spy, if any of Octavian’s guard come near you, they will interfere.” Frank stated, “you are in safe hands, we will make it our highest priority that no harm should come to you.”

“Deal, if you agree to double the payment.” Drew found herself thinking, she couldn’t see any down side, she’ll get more customer, and if they were all as good looking as this guys. Then she’ll gladly participate in the war.

after a moment of hesitation Frank gave a heavy sight, and agreed.

“Now that we got that part done with—” Drew said her grin becoming wider, “why don’t we move on something more fun?” 

“I can’t, I have to go home.” The general stated slightly abash, “I will report back though, thank you for your cooperation. 

As he left, Drew found herself in a state of shock. Never had this happen before, never did a man leave her to sleep alone! Not once did she find herself waking up alone, they would, but not her! How could this happen to her?


End file.
